bartlesville athletic hall of fame 2025 inductees announced monday
Bartlesville High School Lady Bruins coach Gerald Thompson will be inducted into Bartlesville Athletic Hall of Fame (BaHOF) later this year. Thompson will be joined by Noah Hartsock, Mike Epperson and the 1969 Bartlesville American Legion Baseball Team.
Courtesy photo
By Mike Tupa
May 12, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
It seems almost cliche to praise each new annual class of the Bartlesville Athletic Hall of Fame (BaHOF) as one of the best ever.
And their credentials of the past inductees have been impeccable and highly deserving.
This year’s class — selected by the Bartlesville Sports Commission (BSC), which oversees the BaHOF — breaks some new ground, however, making it unique among the wave of wonderful groups that have widened the ocean of local formally canonized sports tradition.
By design, the number of inductees will be fewer this year — coach Gerald Thompson, former Bartlesville High School basketball legend Noah Hartsock, incredible gymnastics’ talent Mike Epperson and the peerless 1969 Bartlesville American Legion Baseball team.
The induction celebration is scheduled for October 3, a Friday with the Bartlesville High football team playing out of town.
BSC Chairman Chris Batchelder contacted the Bartlesville Area Sports Report on Monday afternoon to announce the prospective inductees.
“This is such a tough task every year,” Batchelder said. “We just have so many qualified candidates to choose from. When you look at all four inductees as a group it is one of our strongest groups of inductees. They carry their weight in the community.”
Thompson is arguably the most beloved coach in the history of Bartlesville prep athletics and certainly the longest serving in Bartlesville Public Schools, extending well more than 30 years. He has worked mostly as an assistant basketball coach, although he sat in the number one chair for the girls basketball team in the early 2000s.
His 2000-01 squad won 14 games and made a deep playoff run, led by another future BaHOF’er Amanda Warehime.
His gentle demeanor, fiery internal competitiveness and ability to connect with athletes as both a mentor and a valued friend have made him an asset beyond calculation. He has been a steadying influence for multiple head boys basketball coaches.
Batchelder used one word to sum up Thompson’s value to the Bartlesville High sports program: “Immeasurable.”
“I don’t even know how to put metrics to the difference he has made,” in the lives of his coaching colleagues, fellow teachers and most importantly students, Batchelder added. “He’s a person of incredible character. Those are the type of people we want in the Hall of Fame.”
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Bartlesville High School basketball stand-out Noah Hartsock, center, will be inducted into the Bartlesville Athletic Hall of Fame (BaHOF) later this year. Hartsock went on to play basketball for Brigham Young University.
Courtesy photo
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Hartsock is perhaps the elite of boys basketball players that graduated from Bartlesville High.
From his sophomore through his senior seasons (2004-06) Bartlesville appeared in the state tournament each year. By comparison, since Hartsock’s graduation in 2006, Bartlesville has been back to state only once (2012) in 19 seasons. (His younger brother Jakob played for the 2012 team.) During Noah’s junior year the Bruins advanced all the way to the state championship game.
As a senior, the 6-foot-8 Hartsock averaged approximately 25-plus points per game and around double-digit rebounds.
He served a church mission from 2006-08 and then played four years for Brigham Young University’s men’s basketball team.
As a BYU senior (2011-12) he averaged 16.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game and blocked 55 shots — despite playing through injury part of the season — in the same lineup as future NBA star Jimmer Fredette.
BYU man the NCAA tourney during each of Hartsock’s years on the team.
After college Hartsock played a year of pro ball in Europe prior to becoming a coach.
Following an amazing youth career in Bartlesville Phillips 66 Gymnastics Club competition, Epperson competed in the mid-1980s in All-Around events for the University of Nebraska.
Epperon’s resume prior to college included becoming the first Elite Gymnast from the State of Oklahoma (1983) and qualifying for the U.S. Junior National Team (1983-84).
Epperson also made the roster of the U.S. Senior National Team (1985-89).
At Nebraska, he was a two-time All-American — on the horizontal bar (9.45, third best in the nation) in 1989 and on the parallel bars (9.6) in 1985. He also was part of Nebraska’s national championship team in the late 1980s.
Epperson made the short list as a Nissen Award Finalist in 1989 for the best collegiate gymnast in the nation.
Austin and Abbie Epperson, the children of Epperson and his wife Lisa — also a Nebraska collegiate gymnast — have competed for Nebraska gymnastics.
Batchelder is happy to be able to recognize the tremendous part gymnastics has played in the local sports heritage.
He also feels the Bartlesville American Legion Baseball program has been under-represented in the HOF and is thrilled to see the 1969 team selected for induction.
The 1969 Indians are the only Bartlesville team to advance to the American Legion World Series.
Led by manager Al Solenberger and his head coach Vic Baginski, this Indians recorded a 21-2 record during a late stretch as a team and sat (unofficially) at 34-9 coming out of the district playoffs.
It must be noted many of these same players helped guide College High to the state high school baseball championship in 1969.
The Indians’ roster consisted of players from both Col-Hi and Sooner High and at least one player from Ochelata.
Catcher Bill Berryhill would go on to record a memorable college career for the University of Texas. Other players on the team also starred in college.
This also was the year the Apollo landing on the moon. In fact, just days prior to the rocket ship stirring up moon dust, Berryhill blasted a moon shot — the two-run variety — to carry the Indians past Jefferson City in the championship game of the Glenn Winget Memorial Tournament.
So, the Class of 2025 is set.
In less than six months the incoming inductees will have a chance to take a bow in front of what Batchelder hopes will be a large crowd. It should be a night of memories, of glory revisited and times that seem they were almost too good and too special to have ever been really true.
The greatness of it is that these moments were true and part of the vibrant legacy of Bartlesville sports.